[Senate Hearing 117-96]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 117-96
OVERSIGHT OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MODERNIZATION EFFORTS
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HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
OCTOBER 20, 2021
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Rules and Administration
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available on http://www.govinfo.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
46-033 WASHINGTON : 2021
COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
FIRST SESSION
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota, Chairwoman
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California ROY BLUNT, Missouri
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky
MARK R. WARNER, Virginia RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont TED CRUZ, Texas
ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon Virginia
ALEX PADILLA, California ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
JON OSSOFF, Georgia DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi
BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee
Elizabeth Peluso, Staff Director
Rachelle Schroeder, Republican Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Pages
Opening Statement of:
Honorable Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from
the State of Minnesota......................................... 1
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of
Missouri....................................................... 3
Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress,
Washington, DC................................................. 5
Ms. Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director, United
States Copyright Office, Washington, DC........................ 7
Dr. Mary Mazanec, Director, Congressional Research Service,
Washington, DC................................................. 8
Mr. Jason M. Broughton, Director, National Library Service for
the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress, Washington,
DC............................................................. 9
Prepared Statement of:
Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, Library of Congress,
Washington, DC................................................. 24
Ms. Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director, United
States Copyright Office, Washington, DC........................ 34
Dr. Mary Mazanec, Director, Congressional Research Service,
Washington, DC................................................. 43
Mr. Jason M. Broughton, Director, National Library Service for
the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress, Washington,
DC............................................................. 49
Questions Submitted for the Record:
Honorable Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from
the State of Minnesota to Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of
Congress, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.................. 55
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of
Missouri to Dr. Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, Library of
Congress, Washington, DC....................................... 56
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of
Missouri to Ms. Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and
Director, United States Copyright Office, Washington, DC....... 63
Honorable Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from
the State of Minnesota to Dr. Mary Mazanec, Director,
Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC................. 69
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of
Missouri to Dr. Mary Mazanec, Director, Congressional Research
Service, Washington, DC........................................ 70
Honorable Roy Blunt, a United States Senator from the State of
Missouri to Mr. Jason M. Broughton, Director, National Library
Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress,
Washington, DC................................................. 72
OVERSIGHT OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MODERNIZATION EFFORTS
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2021
United States Senate
Committee on Rules and Administration
Washington, DC
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:07 p.m., in
Room 301, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Amy Klobuchar,
Chairwoman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Klobuchar, Blunt, Ossoff, Capito,
Fischer, and Hagerty.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE AMY KLOBUCHAR, CHAIRWOMAN, A
UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Good afternoon. I call this hearing
of the Rules and Administration Committee on Oversight of the
Library of Congress's Modernization Efforts to order. I would
like to thank Ranking Member Blunt, our colleagues, and our
witnesses for being here, in what we will consider an island of
sanity on a rather insane day today. Right here in this room,
we are going to be constructive, as you always are, and I want
to thank you for the work that you have all done on behalf of
our Nation's Library.
In particular, I would like to thank Librarian of Congress
Dr. Carla Hayden for once again appearing before the Committee
and for maintaining a steady hand at the Library through a
really difficult time, the pandemic. A place where so many
people are used to coming in in-person and walking through the
doors, like every other agency and every other business. It has
not been easy.
I would also like to welcome our other witnesses, Shira
Perlmutter, who is the Register of Copyrights and Director of
the United States Copyright Office, Ms. Mary Mazanec, who is
the Director of the Congressional Research Service, something
we all use, and Mr. Jason Broughton, who is the Director of the
National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, who
just joined the Library last month, after previously serving as
Vermont's first African American State Librarian.
So congratulations on your new position. As some of you
know, I know that Dr. Hayden knows it, it was my childhood
dream to be a librarian. That is what I put down in first grade
of what I wanted to do. I started my own Dewey Decimal System
in a box of all the books that I read. My career, sadly, took a
different path, but this is still very important to me. The
reason I wanted to be a librarian is it was my favorite thing
to go to the library and check out books and read them.
Libraries are an essential part of our civic infrastructure,
holding society's important records, critical research, and
works of art. They preserve and share this knowledge for future
generations.
We are here today to discuss the ongoing efforts to
modernize the largest library in the world, the Library of
Congress. Okay, I just learned that as I read it, that we do in
fact have the largest Library in the world. The Library holds
more than 171 million volumes and has the world's largest
collections of legal materials, films, and sound recordings.
People come from all over the world to see these collections,
even in the midst of the pandemic. Last year, the Library
welcomed more than half a million visitors in person and
increased its online traffic by more than 50 percent, to nearly
175 million unique visits.
Thousands of dedicated staff at the Library work to ensure
that these important resources are available to the public. My
own husband has written a number of historical books and spent
much time in the Library of Congress researching. The
initiatives,
Dr. Hayden, that you have launched and the reforms you have
implemented speak to your vision of a library that is inclusive
and accessible to everyone. The stated goal of the Library's 5-
year strategic plan released in 2018, Enriching the Library
Experience, is to expand the Library's intellectual and
inspirational value to people across the country, and to engage
and inform all Americans from all walks of life.
When we held our last oversight hearing on Library
Modernization in 2019, you, Dr. Hayden, explained that in order
to achieve these goals and increase accessibility, you had
begun a modernization effort to ensure that the Library keeps
pace with the rapid advancement of technology. I note that this
was in November, right before the onslaught of the pandemic, so
it is good you had a plan.
Digital access and connectivity to the Library's
collections have proved, as I have noted--especially during the
pandemic--investments in the Library's information technology
systems and programs are essential for the Library to fulfill
its mission. Briefly, the Copyright Office. The Library of
Congress is home, of course, to the Copyright Office, critical
to our economy. According to a study released last year,
businesses and artists who rely on copyrights contribute more
than $1.5 trillion to our economy annually. That translates to
about 7 percent of the total United States GDP and 5.7 million
jobs. If you are an author, musician, filmmaker, or any one of
the millions of Americans who create content, the Copyright
Office is the place for you to go.
Copyrights are essential to the vitality and creativity of
our economy and modernizing the office to keep pace with the
technology and content is a priority for our Nation. We look
forward to hearing those updates as well as the implementation
of legislation that has passed in recent years, including the
Music Modernization Act and the CASE Act. Congressional
Research Service for members and our staff, very important,
75,000 congressional requests in the year 2020. CRS informs
Congress on many of the most pressing legislative issues facing
our Nation, providing non-partisan analysis that informs the
policymaking process.
Finally, last but not least, the National Library Service
for the Blind and Print Disabled performs the critical role of
ensuring that the Library's resources are available to
everyone. Ensuring that those who cannot read print have access
to modern braille devices. That continues to be one of Senator
Blunt's and my top priorities. Today we are going to hear more
about NLS's several ongoing efforts to expand access to its
services, including by providing braille eReaders, and with its
growing library of nearly 150,000 downloadable braille and
audio reading materials.
The Library has a rich and celebrated history, and we look
forward to hearing about the modernization efforts at this
critical time. With that, I turn it over to my friend, real
friend and colleague, Senator Blunt.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE ROY BLUNT, A UNITED STATES
SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI
Senator Blunt. Real friend, as opposed to just sort of made
up Senatorial friend. But we are----
Chairwoman Klobuchar. There are a lot of those in this
building----
Senator Blunt. There are, and we do lots of this work
together. In fact, when you mentioned the largest library in
the world was the Library of Congress, and you had just read
that, it reminded me of Senator Dole, who I never served with,
but he had this great sense of humor, who said he often liked
to read his speech for the first time before the crowd, that
way they could be equally surprised.
[Laughter.]
Senator Blunt. But we are glad----
Chairwoman Klobuchar. I may use that line. That is very
good.
Senator Blunt. So, Senator Klobuchar, thanks for calling
this hearing. Dr. Hayden, it is nice to see you again so soon.
I was glad to have a chance just a few weeks ago to film a
little promotion video with you for the Veterans History
Project. I certainly think and hope we can talk more about that
project later today. But after some time working a long way
apart, it is nice to have us all back and able to be in the
same room, even in under maybe different circumstances than we
sometimes would like. In our last hearing in November 2019, we
discussed the progress in modernizing the Library, as well as
the work yet to be done there.
It certainly has been an eventful two years since then, and
you have dealt with a number of issues, all of you have, that
you wouldn't have expected to deal with as we have. I will tell
you, my colleagues and I, and certainly Senator Klobuchar and I
are interested in the Library's successful modernization, and
we want you to know that we are supportive of the ongoing
effort you are making there.
People depend on the Library in ways that they might not
have anticipated and get their information in ways that they
wouldn't have anticipated just a few years ago. For our other
witnesses today, Mr. Broughton, thanks for being here and
taking this job. When I was the Secretary of State in Missouri,
we brought the State Library and the Wolfner Library for the
Blind into the Secretary of State's Office. I watch what you
are doing carefully.
As Senator Klobuchar mentioned, that is one of the things
we are both committed to doing everything we can to be sure
that we make all of that information as accessible and stored
as properly when it is not being out as it needs to be.
Certainly, the copyright issues, Ms. Perlmutter, are huge
issues. I think looking at the things that you are working on
to try to find a better way where the individual content
creator or the small business creator really has an opportunity
to defend what they have created, if that happens. Certainly
the Congressional Research Service, particularly in our office,
but particularly in the Republican Policy Committee that I
chair, I think we have contacted you multiple times almost
every day of the week.
I am sure that Senator Stabenow's team in the Democrat
Policy Council does the same thing, so thanks for what you all
do. I am glad that you are here. You know, shortly before Dr.
Hayden took the reins at the Library. In fact in 2016 the
Government Accounting Office released a report highlighting
serious vulnerabilities they thought in the Library's
information technology infrastructure and giving the Library a
list of recommendations. Over the last five years, the Library
has made great strides in centralizing its IT systems, and I
think closing out nearly all of those recommendations, we might
revisit the last challenges in that front.
The project in the Thomas Jefferson Building to create a
youth center, a treasures gallery for the Library's rare
collections, and an orientation space in one of the most
remarkable buildings in the world--if it didn't have that great
collection at it, the building itself is certainly a jewel that
we couldn't recreate today. But the things that you are doing
there to try to open the building up and welcome people into
the building in different ways I think are so important. What
you did to make the Library's collections available during the
pandemic, and I know we had well over a year of constantly
looking for new ways to make things available to people in the
past would have got them in their own library or in the library
here in different ways, it has been important and will pay
dividends for a long time.
The pandemic had tragic circumstances, but in many things
it just required us to look at the technology that had been out
there and use it in ways that we might have used it five years
ago, but we weren't. To have the real need for the Congress to
provide the resources and each of you to provide leadership has
made a big difference. Again, Senator Klobuchar, thanks for
holding this hearing today, and I look forward to a chance to
ask some questions as--along with you.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Alright. Well, thank you very much,
Senator Blunt. Our first witness today is the Librarian of
Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden. Dr. Hayden was sworn in as the 14th
Librarian of Congress on September 14, 2016, supported by both
Senator Blunt and myself. She is the first woman and the first
African-American to lead the National Library. Previously, she
served as CEO of the library in Baltimore, and beginning--and
that was beginning in 1993. In 2010 she was nominated by
President Obama and confirmed as a member of the National
Museum and Library Services Board.
Earlier in her career, she held positions with the Museum
of Science and Industry in Chicago, University of Pittsburgh,
and Chicago Public Library. She received her undergraduate
degree from Roosevelt University and her Masters of Art and
Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where I went to law
school.
Next up, Ms. Perlmutter is the Register of Copyrights and
Director of the United States Copyright Office. She was
appointed to the position in October 2020. Prior to her
appointment, she served as Chief Policy Officer and Director
for the International--for International Affairs at the United
States Patent and Trademark Office. She previously held
positions at the International Federation of the Phonographic
Industry and at Time Warner. She received her undergraduate
degree from Harvard and her law degree from the University of
Pennsylvania.
Third, Mary Mazanec. Ms. Mazanec has served as Director of
the Congressional Research Service since 2011. Before joining
CRS, she worked from 2002 to 2010 with the United States
Department of Health and Human Services, where she served in
the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and
Response. She previously served as a fellow to the Subcommittee
on Public Health in the Senate HELP Committee. She received her
undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and both
a Doctorate in Medicine and a law degree from Case Western
Reserve University.
Our fourth and final witness is Mr. Jason Broughton. He is
the Director, as noted, the new Director of the National
Library of Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. Prior to
joining the Library of Congress in 2019, he became the first
African-American to serve as Vermont State Librarian, where he
engaged in strategic planning and established a long term
vision for the State Library. For over a decade he has held
numerous roles for libraries in South Carolina and Georgia.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Florida A&M, his
Master's in Library and Information Science from the University
of South Carolina, and his Master's in Public Administration
from the University of South Florida. I will now swear in the
witnesses. If the witnesses would now please stand. Raise your
right hand. Do you swear that the testimony you will give
before the Committee shall be the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
Ms. Hayden. Yes.
Ms. Perlmutter. Yes.
Ms. Mazanec. Yes.
Mr. Broughton. Yes.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you. You will be seated. We
will now proceed to your testimony, and we will recognize each
of you for a 5-minute statement. We are also excited because
this is our first hearing where no one was remote of the
witnesses, so this is like a new moment for us in a few years.
So we go--start with you, Dr. Hayden.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CARLA HAYDEN, LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS,
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, DC
Ms. Hayden. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member
Blunt. We appreciate this opportunity to appear today in person
to discuss the programs and priorities of the Library of
Congress. I am very pleased to share with the Committee updates
about how we are modernizing to ensure high quality service to
Congress and your constituents back home.
Joining me today are the Register of Copyrights, Shira
Perlmutter, CRS Director Mary Mazanec, and Jason Broughton,
former Vermont State Librarian and who joined us just a few
weeks ago in his new role as Director of NLS. I am very pleased
to report that the Library continued to operate and maintain
productivity while managing the challenges of the pandemic. In
fact, our readiness to transition to post-pandemic operations
greatly benefited from Congress's support and the recent
investments in our ongoing technical transformation.
All Library divisions launched new initiatives to open what
we call the digital treasure chest and our digital front door.
For example, we celebrated the Library's 220th birthday last
April with the release of the LOC Collections mobile app. We
held many virtual student workshops and town halls with Members
of Congress. We recently revamped our dedicated teachers'
website at loc.gov, and we were able to complete the
digitization of 23 early Presidential collections from George
Washington to Coolidge. Just last month, we held the National
Book Festival with enhanced digital features such as streaming
and online interactives, as well as a National PBS broadcast
hosted by the legendary literary champion LeVar Burton.
Expanding digital access is clearly more important than ever,
and indeed visits to our websites and pages rose by nearly 50
percent in fiscal year 2020.
We are also moving forward with the design of the new
Visitor Experience in the Thomas Jefferson Building, including
a welcoming orientation gallery for the first time, featuring
Thomas Jefferson's Library; a Treasures Gallery to display the
scope of our collections, that will be a rotating treasures
gallery; and a youth center to inspire learners of every age.
With the recent release of $10 million in fiscal year 2021
funds, the Library will begin to fund the physical
construction, fabrication, and the installation of all phases
of the project.
Key IT modernization initiatives continue to move forward,
building on our progress to date, and this includes modernizing
the legacy IT systems for the Copyright Office, CRS and NLS,
which you will hear more about today. For example, we released
pilots for the copyright recordation and public record systems,
we are leveraging the latest advances in web based technologies
to upgrade the systems CRS uses to respond to Congress, and NLS
is piloting a new e-reader and expanding the braille and audio
download services.
I must note that Congress.gov, the official public website
for legislative information, is in continuous development with
new functionality added every three weeks based on user
feedback. In addition, the Library is also pursuing technology
upgrades for the system, LCAP, that supports collection
activities such as acquisitions and circulation. Physical
collections stewardship continues to be a major focus, with the
steady transition of collections to high tech, specially
designed storage at Fort Meade. The latest Fort Meade Project,
Module 7 will be critical, an actual turning point for the
Library's long term storage strategy once it is constructed.
In closing, the Library is moving forward in substantial
ways across the agency, and we are excited about the progress
that has been made. We are very cognizant of the work that
remains to be done and the promise of the future that will
enable these efforts. As always, we remain committed to
providing excellent service to Congress. We are your Library
and the Library of the people you serve. So thank you again for
your continued interest and support. I have submitted more
extensive written remarks for the hearing record.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Hayden was submitted for the
record.]
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you so much, Dr. Hayden. Next
up, Ms. Perlmutter.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SHIRA PERLMUTTER, REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS
AND DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT OFFICE, WASHINGTON, DC
Ms. Perlmutter. Chairwoman Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt,
thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on the
accomplishments of the United States Copyright Office. Our
staff has shown remarkable resilience during the pandemic, and
we have been able to continue providing high quality services
to the American public with minimal disruption.
I am pleased to report achievements on a number of fronts,
with important milestones in modernization, implementation of
recent legislation, and improved overall processing times for
electronic submissions.
We have made significant progress on modernization. We have
launched an electronic recordation pilot, as well as a pilot of
a new improved interface for our Copyright Public Record
System. We expect to move both of them out of pilot and into
full production in 2022.
We also began testing a new clickable prototype of the
standard registration application. Earlier this year, the
Library established a Copyright Public Modernization Committee
to enhance communications with stakeholders on IT issues. We
have also made great strides in implementing two historic
pieces of copyright legislation, the Copyright Alternative in
Small-Claims Enforcement Act, or CASE Act, and the Music
Modernization Act, or MMA. The Office has been working
intensively to set up the small claims forum by the December
deadline.
We have been promulgating the regulations to govern its
operations, and we have already brought on board all three
Copyright Claims Officers. We have contracted for the needed
technology, including an online case management system.
Finally, the Office issued all regulations needed to implement
the MMA, including the framework for administering the new
blanket license. As to ongoing operations, at the beginning of
the pandemic, the Office quickly transitioned 98 percent of our
staff to full or partial telework.
Those operations that require the handling of physical
materials have gradually resumed. Currently about 43 percent of
our staff are onsite at least part time. That includes the
Public Information Office, which has provided in-person
services by appointment since early July. In Fiscal 2020, the
Office registered nearly half a million copyright claims
involving millions of works of authorship. Over the past year,
we have managed to significantly reduce the average processing
time for registration claims.
The Office also recorded ownership information for over
230,000 works. The online recordation pilot has already proved
successful in avoiding the delays of the existing paper based
system. Feedback from users is enthusiastic and processing time
is now measured in weeks rather than months. The Office
continues to have an active public outreach and education
program as we have moved our events online.
Finally, our legal and policy work has continued without
interruption, including several policy studies and numerous
regulations. So in sum, the past year and a half has been
challenging but also productive. We appreciate the Committee's
continued support. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Perlmutter was submitted for
the record.]
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Thank you. Dr. Mazanec?
OPENING STATEMENT MARY MAZANEC, DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL
RESEARCH SERVICE, WASHINGTON, DC
Ms. Mazanec. Chairwoman Klobuchar and Ranking Member Blunt,
thank you for the opportunity to present testimony today on
behalf of the Congressional Research Service. With today's
testimony, I will update the Committee on a number of important
initiatives to ensure that CRS continues to provide support of
the highest quality to Congress.
CRS recognizes that today's Congress operates in an
environment that is significantly different from its
predecessors. Congress juggles an ever increasing workload of
complex policy issues during a time of constrained resources.
While Congress enjoys access to vast amounts of information,
not all information sources are authoritative or without bias.
CRS is keenly aware of these challenges and is constantly
modernizing its work to optimize its support of Congress.
For example, the service has developed shorter, more
concise products to provide timely information and analysis on
the issues. In addition, CRS has enhanced its product line,
creating and piloting new visual and audio formats such as
instructional videos, interactive graphics, and podcasts. These
products enable members and their staff to access the Service's
expertise at their convenience and in a format they prefer.
In response to evolving congressional priorities, CRS has
instituted hiring actions to bolster expertise in emerging or
expanding policy areas. For example, CRS has created 12
additional positions to strengthen its analysis of science and
technology issues. CRS continues to work with the Library's
Chief Information Officer to modernize its IT infrastructure.
This multi-year initiative will provide CRS staff with the best
resources to create products and services for Congress.
Preserving CRS's institutional knowledge is an important
component of the Service's ability to support the Congress. CRS
is implementing strategies to manage the knowledge that it
creates, including the capture of tacit knowledge held by
senior analysts, attorneys, and information professionals.
Last, CRS continues to collaborate with our congressional
partners to modernize the process by which data is exchanged
for Congress.gov. These modernization efforts will better
safeguard congressional data by retiring less secure legacy
workflows and establish the foundation for future enhancements.
Finally, on behalf of my colleagues at CRS, I want to thank the
Committee for its continued support.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Mazanec was submitted for
the record.]
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Mr. Broughton?
OPENING STATEMENT OF JASON M. BROUGHTON, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL
LIBRARY SERVICE FOR THE BLIND AND PRINT DISABLED, LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Broughton. Chairwoman Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt,
and members of the Committee, it is an honor to appear before
you representing the National Library Service for the Blind and
Print Disabled. Thank you for this opportunity to join you
today.
Congress has played a key role in NLS's creation, history,
and ongoing successes, and I look forward to working with you
as I begin my tenure within NLS. As only the third NLS Director
in the last 48 years, I am honored and humbled to lead this
incredible team as we continue with an extraordinary work.
Drawing from my life and professional experiences, most
recently as the state librarian for the Great State of Vermont,
I am energized by and enthusiastic about contributing to NLS's
unique mandate and mission.
Also as a seasoned educator, I work together and share
information and knowledge and make it available and accessible
to citizens of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. My
diverse background has prepared me well to serve you and the
Library as an NLS Director and has positioned me to understand
what Americans and state entities need and should expect from
NLS. NLS and its network of 98 libraries span the Nation,
having served the American people for now 90 years.
All along, we have been able to rely on the generous
support of Congress. Because of this, we are thriving. Despite
the challenges of COVID-19, NLS continues to serve hundreds of
thousands of patrons via its partner libraries. During fiscal
year 2020, NLS circulated over 20 million books, magazines and
music items. NLS's braille, audio, and reading download
interface, also known as BARD, now contains an astonishing
146,733 items, and the overall collection includes over 310,000
accessible items.
Congress's support has been indispensable to the success,
from increasing our base funding each year to supporting our
additional funding request for our IT modernization work and e-
reader development, to updating our statutory authorization to
meet current needs. We and our patrons thank you. Your support
allowed NLS working with the Library's Office of the Chief
Information Officer to move BARD to the cloud, increasing
download speeds for audiobooks. Your support for our e-reader
project has resulted in thousands of devices now in the hands
of patrons.
Your legislative support allowed NLS to update its name and
empowered NLS to participate in Marrakesh Treaty, allowing
patrons access to even more materials, including to date 1,163
Marrakesh works available in BARD in eight languages. NLS with
your assistance, was able to also update regulatory language to
ease access for reading disabled individuals, resulting in a 35
percent increase to this patron group.
In closing, as the new Director of NLS, I am dedicated to
NLS's excellent work to serving more patrons and to leading NLS
into the next 90 years to ensure that all may read. I am happy
to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Broughton was submitted for
the record.]
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much. Excellent job.
Senator Blunt will go first, and I think Senator Ossoff is out
there now. I will go after that. But go ahead, Senator Blunt.
Senator Blunt. Well, thank you, Chair. Dr. Hayden let's
talk just a little bit about the visitor experience master
plan. One, how are we doing on our effort to afford it? I know
you said in your testimony you were ready to start. I think it
would certainly anticipated that we will have a appropriations
process this year, and I think that final $10 million will
provide the $40 million that was the commitment, outside of
private funding. So am I right that you are ready to start?
Two, what does your private funding situation look like now?
Ms. Hayden. Well, thank you for this question. We were able
to continue to make very solid progress during the pandemic.
Most of the work during that time had to do with design
elements and things that lent themselves to the digital and
teleworking environment. At this point, we have nearly $14
million in cash and commitments for the private fundraising.
Mr. David Rubenstein made a substantial gift personally,
and is very engaged in the efforts to continue that. We have
several outstanding proposals that we are very hopeful about so
that we would be able to complete the private fundraising. We
also were able to secure some major gifts from the Mellon
Foundation, $15 million over a certain number of years, $10
million from the Kislak Foundation, and $500,000 from the Ford
Foundation that will help with the programing that will
supplement. So in terms of each of the projects, the Treasures
Gallery, and these projects, the three will be opening in
phases.
The Treasures Gallery is scheduled to be opening in the
fall of 2023. There have been some design changes, and so we
are very pleased to see that project move along and stay very
much on schedule. The Orientation Gallery will be able to open
in the spring of 2025, and that has some more complicated
construction and design things with the Oculus that will look
up into the reading room, and some life safety issues. I do
want to take this opportunity to thank the Architect of the
Capitol--that whole Department has worked with us all the way.
They have been very helpful with that.
Then the youth center is scheduled to open in the summer of
2024. So these, with the additional funding that will be
coming, we will be able to move into the fabrication stage and
with detailed plans and to get into construction. We are
preparing the bid documents for that part. So it is moving
ahead, and it is starting to get pretty exciting because we
have more renderings, we have focus groups, we even had a focus
group of congressional young people who were helping us with
the youth center.
Senator Blunt. Great. Great. Let me let me ask another
question. As you put that visitor experience master plan
together, what do you think you have learned that will--you
will use in other Library of Congress decisions in the future?
Are there things you have learned that you will be recommending
to other large libraries or libraries generally that you are
going to be sharing as you are speaking to groups and talking
to librarians after you have thought about making the Library a
different place than it has been?
Ms. Hayden. What has been interesting has been the
confluence of what we have had to do in terms of the pandemic
and moving to more online programing. We were able to
incorporate some of those lessons learned, like the fact that
you can have meaningful author talks and all types of things
that we might not have considered to such an extent if we
hadn't had the experience that we had in the last year or two.
So it really informed, and those are the lessons learned that
most libraries throughout the country are incorporating,
because the Library of Congress, for instance, was able to
spread out throughout the country with virtual programing for
instance, with the National Book Festival.
We partnered with Centers for the Book in every state to
have the book festival in your community. So those types of
things will allow us to make the in-person experience more
meaningful, for instance, in the Treasures Gallery, and
possibly in the Orientation Gallery, you will be able to see
and talk to a conservationist in the conservation lab in the
Madison Building and see them do things and give
demonstrations.
So those types of things, using technology in a way that
engages people and allows people who aren't physically there to
also participate.
Senator Blunt. Okay, thank you. I will have some other
questions later, Chairwoman.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much. Thank you. I
will start with you, Dr. Hayden, could you talk about what you
are doing to ensure the public has meaningful access to such a
vast amount of information on the digital--on your digital
collection? Because I think we all know you can have stuff out
there, but it is not easy sometimes for regular people to
access it unless it is somehow triaged in a format where they
can get it.
Ms. Hayden. Right. I mentioned the new app for Library
collections in your pocket. Doing much more, and this was also
something that was accelerated during this time, with
connecting and partnering with other institutions and using
social media in some innovative ways and connecting and making
our website more robust and calling it our digital front door.
So those efforts.
Now, the digital collecting as well, and our plans on how
we are going to digitize our manuscript collections, I
mentioned the 23 Presidential collections, those efforts are
continuing, and we know that that is another way to make sure
that people have access. So it is a combination.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Good. What is the Library doing to
identify and prevent cyber-attacks? We have had so many
Government agencies as well as businesses be victim to that.
Ms. Hayden. Yes, and we are part of that. We have
professionalized our processes. In fact, our new CIO, Judith
Conklin, who succeeded Bud Barton, is a cybersecurity expert.
She is right behind me, and she has extensive experience not
only in the Library, but she is a veteran.
In fact, she was in charge of that aspect. We have
implemented NIST IT security standards. One-hundred percent of
our IT systems currently have authority to operate. That is up
from about 35 percent in that 2015 overview of the Library's IT
operations. That was something that was noted that we had to
concentrate on. We did experience nearly 200,000 attempted
cyber-attacks last year, and so we are continuing to fortify.
We have a request in the budget for fiscal year 2022----
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Good segue.
Ms. Hayden [continuing]. to allow us to expand our IT
security in the cloud.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay, very good. Thank you. Mr.
Broughton, you mentioned in your testimony that NLS is
currently testing its braille e-readers in a pilot program.
When is that testing going to be completed? When do you expect
those devices to be widely available?
Mr. Broughton. Thank you for the question. This is one of
our areas that I think we are very, very pleased to be talking
about regarding the types of policies that we are doing. We are
on track for looking at a variety of items to make sure that
they are prepared in a way that I would say is very, very
efficient, effective, and also part of our modernization
standard in what we are looking at.
We hopefully expect that as we go through we have a lot of
pilots, anything from hardware, lockdown devices, all the way
to a few conversational things, such as smartphones and looking
at make sure that patrons are able to utilize them in a very
strategic way and that they enjoy them.
We hope that they are also accessible in a way that allows
us to make sure that they are secure and that they are freely
available. So we are looking at something around, let's say,
next year in the spring. We definitely have put out about 4,500
and we hope to up that to about 9,000 very, very soon.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay, very good. Ms. Perlmutter, I
wanted to just mention, I know we keep track of this because
one of the issues for us is how long we hear from people about
how long it takes to process copyrights.
I think you guys last year began accepting certain
copyright recordation documents electronically for the first
time and then reduced average processing times for copyright
registration applications by almost a month from four to three
months compared to two years ago. Do you expect to see even
better processing times as the records go fully electronic?
Ms. Perlmutter. Yes, I am glad you raised that. We are very
pleased that we have been able to bring the processing times
down. We are now getting the vast majority of registration
applications in electronic form. For those that are fully
electronic, by which I mean both the application and the
deposit are electronic, we are processing them on average in
less than two months. It is very, very quick.
For those claims that include some physical materials, we
are bringing more staff back onsite and expect to be able to
move past whatever happened during the pandemic over the coming
year. But we do think overall, we will see additional decreases
in processing times. It is hard to get too much faster. We are
not going to be able to do them overnight, but we are already
seeing some declines even since--even in the second half of
this past fiscal year.
Once we get past some of the backlogs from the pandemic
that will manifest itself.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Since we have been joined
by the Senator from Tennessee, I thought I would bring up the
Music Modernization Act, bipartisan legislation that I
supported that became law in 2018 to update the music licensing
process, making it easier for songwriters to receive
compensation from digital streaming services.
In April of this year, songwriters got their first payments
from the newly created collective that issues licenses to
streaming services, collects, distributes the royalties. I know
that you have issued a number of rulemakings. What has been the
overall response? Your Office released a report in July making
recommendations for how the new collective can reduce the
amount of unclaimed royalties and ensure songwriters are
receiving their earned compensation.
What can you tell us about the extent of that issue? How
many royalties remain unclaimed? I know it is a lot, but maybe
just tell us about overall response to rulemaking and then the
royalties remaining unclaimed, and then I will turn to my
colleagues, and I will ask you questions at the end here. Thank
you.
Ms. Perlmutter. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Well, to
implement the MMA, we actually had to complete nine different
rulemakings. I am happy to say that both songwriters and the
music industry generally were very active participants in the
process.
So we actually received overall 800 written comments and
hosted dozens of meetings with affected parties, including
songwriters. Going forward, we are going to be looking at
whether any additional regulatory activity is appropriate
because a number of our rules were adopted on an interim basis.
We are continuing to be available for meetings with
stakeholders about any need for further adjustments.
So that is always a possibility. But so far, we have had no
indication that the regulations or the statute are not working
as intended. So the next step for us, in addition to all of the
outreach we are doing to songwriters, and I can talk more about
that, and the possible regulatory adjustments is that we will
be reviewing the collective, the MLC, the Mechanical Licensing
Collective's performance as part of the statute's five year
designation process. So that will also be continuing. In terms
of our report, broadly speaking, we recommended that the MLC
adopt significant measures to reduce unclaimed royalties,
including by maximizing outreach and transparency.
In terms of the extent to which there is an issue, in terms
of the amount of unmatched historical royalties, the MLC
reported that in February, 20 digital services transferred a
total of about $424 million, so it is holding that money. Over
the course of this year, the MLC has been receiving monthly
payments from the services under the blanket license and the
aggregate amount of the new unmatched royalties as opposed to
historical has of course grown as those payments have been
made.
We don't know the precise amount of current unmatched
royalties that the MLC is holding, but it has reported
distributing about $200 million to date with an increasing
match rate, which now averages about 85 percent, which is, I
think, higher than the industry average.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay, very good. Thank you for that
thorough answer. We are going to go to Senator Capito, then we
go to Senator Ossoff and then Senator Hagerty. Thank you.
Senator Capito. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for
having the hearing. It is nice to see you again, Dr. Hayden.
Again, I want to thank you several years ago for visiting
several libraries in my State of West Virginia, and I have a
very large picture in my district office of all those beautiful
children as you were reading aloud to them. So thank you for
that and I hope you are out moving around again. My first
simple question, and you might have already testified to this
is, is the building open, the main building here, open for
visitors?
Ms. Hayden. Yes, and thank you for that. Since July, we
have had timed passes, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, for the
general public. Before that, we had by appointment for
researchers, and so that started earlier and had a special
electronic reading room for that. So we have been doing that
and it really has been heartening to see the number of people
who make the appointment online and are able to come in.
Senator Capito. What about the work force? I noticed in
some of the backup data that several areas of the work force is
still remote working. Is there a plan to get everybody back?
What is your----
Ms. Hayden. Oh yes, we had a phased operation plan. I have
to say this is again--thank you to Congress for the investments
in our IT infrastructure, we were able to go to teleworking in
almost a seamless way, we increased that about 800 percent in
terms of the number of staff who can telework.
The teleworking, and what we have been able to do, for
instance, in Library services, we were able to have more of
those collections digitized. We were able to have
transcriptions going on. With the plan, we are in about--we are
in the third part of a three part plan to have as many more
staff members back onsite. It has been interesting because we
have had quite a bit of communication with staff from the very
beginning.
Senator Capito. Is there resistance to coming back since
they can--they have already proven they can work remotely
effectively?
Ms. Hayden. No, no. In fact, it has been interesting. Some
people are ``Zoomed out.''
Senator Capito. Right.
Ms. Hayden. Just to say that they look forward to it. But
they also have gotten very good at how you can work together
remotely and also still have different experiences. For
instance, Ms. Perlmutter might even expand on that, the
Copyright Office just had an event outside and brought staff in
together. So the resistance--we had a staff survey.
Eighty-five percent of the staff members said that they
think that we have been very supportive of their health issues
and concerns, and they want to greet the public. One thing we
have done in terms of our volunteers, we have virtual volunteer
stations. So our volunteers were able to, when people are
there, especially in the Jefferson building, they can interact
with a virtual volunteer.
Senator Capito. That is interesting. I know when I was the
appropriator for--that included the Library, one of the big
issues was storage and records. I think that you have an
alternative location where you are moving a lot of your
records. How is that project going?
Ms. Hayden. Yes. That is the long term physical storage at
Fort Meade. We have six physical storage units at Fort Meade,
Maryland, and we are planning for the 7th module. I am
hesitating a little bit because the funding for that had been
reprogrammed and so we really need this 7th module, and they
are going to be nine total. That is moving along.
Senator Capito. Okay. I don't know why I had it in my mind
that you would have gone down to Southwest Virginia for some--
--
Ms. Hayden. Oh, that is Culpeper.
Senator Capito. Culpeper. What is----
Ms. Hayden. Oh, that is the David Packard Center. That is
where the moving images and sound recordings, and it is one of
the largest. That has been able to, of course, continue. We
have the physical archives of companies and things like that.
Senator Capito. Okay. Alright. Thank you.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. We were just planning a field trip
down there, Senator Blunt, for the Committee. Next up, Senator
Ossoff.
Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Madam Chair, Ranking Member
Blunt. Thank you to our witnesses. Thank you, Dr. Hayden, for
your service. Dr. Mazanec, I would like to engage with you
about the extraordinary work that you and your team do it at
CRS. My staff and I rely upon your experts, your research, your
analysis every day. The decisions of Members of Congress make
are only as good as the information that we have on hand to
make judgments and conduct analysis.
We are too often surrounded by partisan narratives, media
narratives, one sided talking points, talking points that
reflect the interests of outside groups and their funders,
talking points that represent the interests of executive
agencies. For Congress to have its own research service that is
dedicated to objectivity and empiricism and sound information
is so important.
I want to discuss how we might grow those capabilities,
what your key shortcomings are, where you don't have sufficient
experts. Because as invaluable as the work that you and your
team do is. I would like as a Member and I would like for my
staff to have access to more of it and faster round the clock
and for your research and analysis capabilities, for your fact
gathering capabilities to rival those of executive agencies who
often have themselves more research capacity than the entire
legislative branch does so.
What would be your vision, if you were less resource
constrained, for the growth of the Congressional Research
Service to serve that mission?
Ms. Mazanec. Thank you for that question. If I had
unlimited resources, I definitely would bolster our expertise,
not only in high demand areas, but also in emerging areas. I
would also want to bring on staff to overlap with individuals
that are nearing retirement so that we could pass off
information. There are other initiatives that I would like to
put resources on. I mentioned one in my testimony, the
Knowledge Management Initiative.
We really need to capture our work product, the knowledge
that we are creating, and also capture the tacit knowledge.
What the pandemic has really underscored is the importance of
IT as a tool for us to do our work and to publish it and
present it to Congress. We are in the middle of an IT
modernization initiative, but additional resources would allow
us to make sure that our IT systems are continually supported.
A lot of the initiatives are dependent on developmental work
from our colleagues in the Office of the Chief Information
Officer.
The other area that I would put resources on besides
personnel and IT would probably be research materials. Some of
the data bases, especially some of the online resource
materials, are costly. That would be another area that we would
hopefully be able to add resources to.
So there is a lot of things that we can do. We leveraged
the Libraries, offices and support. Obviously, to bring on more
staff requires H.R. experts, both within CRS and within the
Library's H.R. Office. That would be another area that I would
like to reinforce. So there is all sorts of things that is only
limited by the imagination of myself and my colleagues at CRS.
Senator Ossoff. The resources that we allocate for these
purposes. That is where I think we have a job to do. I would
submit to colleagues on both sides of the aisle that for the
legislative branch to function at the highest potential that we
need to be able to rely upon information and research that is
conducted by the legislative branch.
That the institution in mind, just a few months here thus
far, is heavily reliant on outside groups and executive
agencies for information, and the information that we receive
from those parties reflects their interests. That, I think can
have a negative impact on our ability to come to our own
conclusions independently. Well, how long does it take you to
staff up, if you wanted to add personnel in key issue areas?
You know, what is the hiring process? What is the--yes, please.
What is the----
Ms. Mazanec. CRS follows the merit selection plan laid out
by the Library. It usually takes a matter of months to really
bring somebody on board from the outside. On an annual basis,
we probably do an average of 45 hires a year. Some of those are
new positions. Some are back fills to people that have
departed, left for other opportunities, or who have retired.
With more resources we probably could expedite the process and
bring on more people.
Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Dr. Mazanec. Let's meet in
person, and Dr. Hayden love to sit down with you as well and
talk about some development of a strategic vision to grow your
capabilities. Thank you.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you, Senator Ossoff. Thank you
for your comments about relying--both sides relying too much on
talking points and information from groups as opposed to
independent research. You are wise for your short time here on
the Committee, so thank you. Yes, Senator Hagerty.
Senator Hagerty. Well, thank you, Chair Klobuchar, Ranking
Member Blunt. It is a pleasure to be with you both today. I
want to thank all of our witnesses too. I appreciate your being
here. As Chair Klobuchar might guess, I would love to talk
about the Music Modernization Act and thank her for her
leadership in bringing that to bare. It is an issue that is
near and dear to people in my home State of Tennessee.
Ms. Perlmutter, I am going to turn my questions to you
because the folks in my home state really care about
songwriters and their music. As I think about my state, the
birthplace of country music is in Bristol, and the music
heritage runs all the way through our State to Memphis, and of
course, you know, that is the home of the Blues. Nashville just
seems to grow every day as a hub for music.
We have a very--a very robust entertainment industry there,
and it really is the heart and soul of Tennessee's culture. In
2018, my predecessor, Senator Lamar Alexander, was a driving
force behind the Music Modernization Act, and as I understand
it and talking with him, it is the most comprehensive overhaul
of music copyright laws that has taken place in decades. The
legislation ensures that songwriters are paid a fair market
value for their work, and it makes it easier for them to obtain
compensation for use of their music by streaming services.
Ms. Perlmutter, your office plays a key role in ensuring
that the Music Modernization Act is properly implemented, and I
want to point out one specific success that you have already
mentioned here today, and that is already paying great
dividends for the industry, and that is the mechanical
licensing collective, the MLC that you mentioned, which is the
nonprofit entity that is designated by the United States
Copyright Office to collect royalties from streaming services
and distribute those royalties to songwriters and music
publishers.
The MLC also gives artists much more control over their
works and their data. In 2021, the MLC began administering
blanket mechanical licenses and distributing royalties. I
appreciate your update on the MLC and what they have already
distributed, and what you have distributed to songwriters and
music publishers is making a real difference in their lives. I
am also pleased that songwriters and publishers are
increasingly getting fair market value for their work, and that
is happening with much more speed and much more certainty, so I
applaud you for that.
Ms. Perlmutter, I would like to not only thank you for your
leadership in implementing the Act, but I would like you to
just take a few minutes to describe some of the successes that
you have observed as you have implemented the Act, and if you
can identify next steps that you would see to increase that
success.
Ms. Perlmutter. Well, we have been very pleased to see the
system get up and running in January as it was supposed to, and
to see the royalties start to be paid out on a timely basis. So
we are following that very closely. Most of the feedback we
have heard has been positive. We are not hearing a lot of
complaints, although I am sure there always are some in any new
system----
Senator Hagerty. They come to my office, I think.
Ms. Perlmutter. That may be the case. Please feel free to
send them along to us. We are doing a lot of educational
outreach because as the statute and the legislative history
recognize, that is a key component to making this new system
work because it is such a major change. So we have already
engaged in more than 50 different outreach activities,
including very much focusing on educating songwriters about how
to claim ownership of works in the MLC data base and how to
receive royalties for their use. We have a website that informs
the public of how the system works and what the relevant dates
are, the implementation dates. We have prepared extensive
educational materials, a lot of them in writing. We have online
video tutorials.
We have a collection of interviews of Members of Congress
who were involved in passage of the legislation, and we also
have created an MMA email newsletter. So we are very actively
involved. I shouldn't leave out the fact that we are actively
engaging and partnering with organizations that represent
songwriters and others who are affected so that they will get
the word out to their members.
So I think all is going well. We don't, of course, oversee
the day to day operations of the MLC, but we are watching how
it is operating and what is happening. You know, as I have
said, because our regulations were mostly issued on an interim
basis, we are keeping watch to see whether any adjustments need
to be made and we will be exercising oversight through the 5-
year designation process.
Meanwhile, we have advertised that we welcome feedback from
stakeholders via email during the interim period as we head
along to the 5-year date.
Senator Hagerty. Well, I appreciate your continued
oversight. If there is anything that you need from the Senate,
from the Congress, I hope that you won't hesitate to let me,
and my office know. I am certain that Chair Klobuchar feels the
same way as other Members of this Committee that have had such
a such an impact on passing this legislation. So thank you for
the work that you are doing.
Ms. Perlmutter. Thank you, Senator Hagerty.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you for those great questions.
Next up, Senator Blunt has some followup questions.
Senator Blunt. Well, thank you. Thank you, Chair. Mr.
Broughton, does every state have a Library for the blind and
print disabled?
Mr. Broughton. You have a network of 90 libraries across
the country and they can be affiliated through state libraries
or their own separate library for the blind specifically.
Senator Blunt. How was Vermont set up? Did you have the
library for the blind under your jurisdiction there?
Mr. Broughton. It was. It was under the State Library. In
fact, it is known as the Vermont Department of Libraries, so I
was the State Librarian Commissioner, and it was organized as
its own unit within the State Library. One of the things that
we tried to do early on when we heard about the Marrakesh
Treaty was to actually figure out in our small way in Vermont
what we could do to kind of be a part of that as it was being
worked upon.
The most unique thing that we did as we work to rename the
actual service, the talking book service. We felt that we
wanted to talk about these services as opposed to the service
population, so we immediately rebranded it the ABLE Library,
which stands for audio, braille, large print, electronic
resources.
Our Governor and of course, the agency Secretary that we
were under were really, really thrilled. It sounded like the
Vermonters there who love the change took off with it and it
has never stopped, and we didn't look back.
Senator Blunt. Are you still using the traditional
equipment or like the levee system that the Library put in has
audio books that you can get in several different ways. How are
you getting information to people now?
Mr. Broughton. Goodness, under that service, I would say,
along with our network, there are transitions. We are in a
sense looking at a variety of things. We are having some of our
older modes come back to us in the sense of the cartridges or
the blue cases that people would have actually know.
I remember when there were that actually green cases, when
I was a child, remember that there was a record player. So you
are always talking about the change in format and design having
to always be something that we need to be cognizant of. Right
now, we are constantly letting people kind of play around with
our pilots so we can get a better understanding of what our
user base might want to participate within.
Geography plays a role in that when you talk about things
with telecommunications, so it is streaming options, smart
voice activated things need to be also considered. So we are
having a lot of things examined by our user base, particularly
in your home state with the Wolfner Library.
Senator Blunt. I think Wolfner has about 8,000 active
subscribers and more than half of them are over 65, but still,
it is an active network.
Mr. Broughton. I would definitely agree. A lot of our user
base is of a certain demographic, and looking at expanding what
we like to do, we hope to utilize the service where it is a
service for all persons from including reading disabled all the
way through vision impaired and physical handicap along with, I
would say, a generation of young and youth oriented people be a
part of the service.
So we are looking to have, I would say, everyone to
understand what that service is, as opposed to viewing it in a
unique way for certain types of individuals. There is just a
lot of things that we were trying to do in a wonderful way as
we prepare for the future because there is a lot of wonderful
options that we have at our disposal to examine. With that, we
have to make sure our patron base has those options that are
applicable, best use for them, which includes we will probably
always have a hard line in the sense of hardware being needed.
Not everybody is going to be able to stream or download if
technology allows that. So we will probably have to have some
devices that we will always retain or migrate to like your own,
a smartphone, for example, could be used as opposed to those
options for the future.
Senator Blunt. Yes, not a question, but I think and maybe
it was the March Inspector General Report this year that said
that this agency had traditionally had a hard time staying on
time and on budget. I am sure that that is one of the things
you intend to focus on. At CRS, in the modernization area, I
think you were behind schedule in that and then finally
terminated the contract. You want to talk about that just a
little bit?
Ms. Mazanec. So our IRIS initiative is a multi-year, multi-
project initiative to modernize IT systems that are CRS
specific. We are in year four of the initiative. In the last
year, we had to terminate contracts with two vendors because
they were unable to deliver the final product. Those contracts
have been reissued. We went through a solicitation project--
process to get new vendors on board.
The IT Modernization Initiative was actually conceptualized
now six, seven years ago. Our approach has changed from an on
premise approach to now a cloud based approach. That may
actually help facilitate us moving forward on modernizing our
systems.
My hope is that we can still bring IRIS to completion on
schedule and on budget, but IT costs have increased, and we are
adopting a new approach for our authoring and publishing
system. Now all that being said, we have made significant
progress in some of our work streams, such as the TAP program,
which is our bill--our text analysis program, also in our
taxonomy efforts.
Senator Blunt. Right. Well, the lowest proposal is often
not the best proposal, certainly not if they can't--and not
saying you took the lowest proposal but having a sense that
people can do the work really matters. I think, Ms. Perlmutter,
you had a situation a little bit like that where you had a
vendor that just didn't perform. I think that decision surely
was made before you got there. Talk about that a little bit.
Ms. Perlmutter. To be honest, Senator Blunt, that was
before my time and I am not really familiar with the
circumstances, but we can certainly get you that information.
Senator Blunt. So that project was, vender was scheduled--
was canceled before you got there? Am I----
Ms. Perlmutter. I believe so. I am not sure which--but we
can get--but we can certainly provide you all the details after
the hearings, sir.
Senator Blunt. Okay. Well, I think the vendor effort
failed, so you can get me some more information on that. My
last question for you, talk a little bit about the
implementation of the CASE Act, the effort to make it easier
for people who aren't surrounded by attorneys and litigators to
protect themselves.
Ms. Perlmutter. Yes, thank you. Senator, this is one of my
favorite topics, actually. So we are very excited that we are
in the process of setting up this new small claims tribunal,
and we have been working very intensively to get it set up by
the statutory deadline. At present, we expect to have all the
necessary elements in place before the end of the year. We have
hired already the three Copyright Claims Officers, they are on
board in the office. I just saw them this afternoon and we are
on track to finalize all of the hiring of the rest of the
staff. We issued a notice of inquiry to solicit public comment
about all aspects of the procedures to be followed. We have now
put in place a series of rulemakings to propose the practices
and procedures for the Board.
So several have already closed, some are still out for
comment, and there are a couple of more still to come. Then we
have been collaborating with the Library, the OCIO and other
parts of the Library, to ready the necessary office space and
the IT that will be needed for the Board to operate. So things
are going very well, and we are looking forward to having the
Board up and running.
Senator Blunt. You are--the Board that will serve as sort
of an arbitration board, is that how that is envisioned to
work?
Ms. Perlmutter. Yes, they are able to hear claims, disputes
involving copyright that have a value of up to $30,000 per
dispute, and it can be a claim brought by a copyright owner
alleging infringement or someone who wants to use the work and
wants essentially a declaratory judgment of non-infringement
before they start, or someone who is claiming that there has
been misrepresentation in a notice under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act. So the three Officers will hear the dispute--
most of it will be done remotely--and issue a decision.
Senator Blunt. Right. Dr. Hayden, when we talked the other
day about the veterans project, there were two things we talked
about that I would like you to comment on a little bit. One is
the gold star impact and two is efforts to get recent veterans
to go ahead and begin to talk about that--their experiences,
while those experiences are still fresher in their mind and
maybe get them a little more comfortable with sharing the
experiences that they want to share.
Ms. Hayden. We are very pleased that the gold star family
aspect has been added to what the Veterans History Project has
been able to do. We have over 110,000 oral histories already.
What that aspect has done is given us outreach much farther
than we would have had with the actual veterans themselves.
These are family members, and one actual mother told me that
she was disappointed that her son couldn't talk about it.
With this act, the mother can talk about it and expand on
that. That has been something that has helped us when we work
with the members. We worked this past year, your office, and
with over 52 members to do videos, to do public service
announcements, and town halls, to talk about the Veterans
History Project. That will continue.
We are working on technology aspects with that so that
people would have possibly an app and they could use and record
and have that opportunity to record with direction, the
veterans or the family members in their lives. Great
participation in terms of working with veterans groups with the
more recent conflicts and engagements because they are
especially--the veterans that come from Vietnam--sometimes,
there is a reluctance there and so we have made a concerted
effort with that group and then the recent engagements as well.
Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chair.
Chairwoman Klobuchar. Well, very much, thank you, Senator
Blunt. I--you know, there is the old saying, not everything has
been said, but I haven't said it, or I haven't asked it in the
United States Senate. I am not actually going to ask any more
questions. I think my colleagues did an incredible job and I
want to thank Ranking Member Blunt and the Members of the
Committee for conducting a very productive and informative
hearing.
I am also grateful to all of our witnesses for appearing
before us in person today and for the work you are doing on
behalf of our Nation's Library. Thanks to your ongoing efforts,
the Library of Congress continues to make significant progress
in implementing recommendations to address the challenges that
it faces and is taking important steps to modernize and adapt
to an increasingly digital environment while continuing to
improve the experience of those who visit in person.
I am looking forward to seeing the conservationist as you
described it, Dr. Hayden. In today's hearing, we heard more
about varied and essential services offered by the Library.
Whether you are an artist, Ms. Perlmutter, looking to protect
your work, whether you are blind or print disabled in need of
reading materials. By the way, Mr. Broughton, you did a very
good job for your first time in front of us. You know, even----
Mr. Broughton. It is appreciated.
Chairwoman Klobuchar.--in reference to the Missouri Library
was especially impressive. Or whether you are someone seeking
information about policy issues. Very, very good, Ms. Mazanec.
I think you have clearly a new fan in our--one of our newest,
our newest and youngest senators, Senator Ossoff.
The Library has resources for you. I look forward to
continuing to work with all four of you and the Members of this
Committee to support your important programs. The hearing
record will remain open for one week and we are adjourned.
Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 4:22 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED
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